Legal Aid Matters
Message from LIV
Issue #1, 7 July 2011 | www.liv.asn.au  
   
  Dear Member,

WELCOME TO THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE LEGAL AID TASKFORCE ENEWSLETTER!

The Legal Aid Taskforce comprises members of the LIV Criminal and Family Law Sections and Victorian Bar, the LIV President and CEO, and LIV Public Affairs and Policy staff. The Taskforce meets monthly and will provide updates to members via this eNewsletter.

TASKFORCE OBJECTIVES
  • To develop a set of metrics similar to that used by the health sector based on minimum standards for Legal Aid
  • To develop a composite strategy to take to the Government, ensuring that there is overlap and visibility of all issues at the forum level (impact on court delays, unrepresented parties etc)
  • To review the allocation of legal aid funds to ensure they are best spent on the core activity of funding legal representation
  • To overhaul and provide a simplified model for legal aid fees, alternative to the Whole of Job fee proposal
  • To increase public recognition of the importance of the legal profession and legal aid
WHOLE OF JOB FEE

Members were sent an email survey on 26 May 2011 seeking their feedback for the proposal to abolish the Whole of Job fee for bail applications and county court appeals.

Ninety-eight per cent of respondents supported the abolition, and VLA have agreed to reverse the implementation of the Whole of Job fee for bail applications and criminal appeals, and instead revert to the former fee structure, plus 9 per cent.

We believe that this is a structurally fair result. Practitioners and counsel can be assured of being remunerated for each appearance. It also signals progress in the LIV's and the Bar's negotiation against the Whole of Job fee, which we strongly believe is an inequitable and unworkable fee structure. It does mean, however, that for the time being a smaller fee will be claimable for complex bail applications.

We believe that the availability of second and subsequent day fees for appeals and bail applications far outweighs the small reduction in the appeal and non-complex bail grants.

RELATIONSHIP WITH VLA

You may be aware that the relationship between the LIV and VLA has recently been at a low ebb. The LIV and VLA have engaged a consultant to conduct moderation and relationship analysis between them. That process is continuing, and we will inform you of the outcome in due course.

Rachna Muddagouni, VLA's Stakeholder Relations Manager, has been in frequent contact with Kerry O'Shea, LIV's Public Affairs Manager, to improve communications between our two organisations. Rachna has been particularly helpful, and has ensured that our members' concerns in relation to ATLAS+ have been dealt with in a timely manner.

Members of the CLS executive and LIV staff attended a private meeting with Bevan Warner and VLA staff in June in the hope that it would help "break the ice" between our two organisations. The meeting was successful and allowed members from both organisations to have an open and frank discussion.

FEE STRUCTURE REVIEW

The Taskforce has set up a sub-committee to look at providing VLA with an alternative fee structure, with the sub-committee examining several different options including the UK Quality Assurance Model, as well as the simplified grants process. Some clerks are helping with this process.

JUSTICE IMPACT STATEMENTS

We are a proposing that Victoria adopt the UK Justice Impact Assessments model, which is an economic assessment of any regulatory proposal's social costs and benefits.

The assessment considers the impact of a proposal on the justice system, including effects on the courts and tribunals, prisons, the legal aid budget, or the prosecuting bodies and judiciary. It also provides guidance aimed at policymakers in government departments to help them assess the impact of their proposals on the justice system. The report is then put into a Justice Impact Statement for government consideration.

Our proposal went to the LIV Council in July, where it was supported.

ATLAS+ PROGRESS – NEW RELEASE OF ATLAS IN JULY

Tony Matthews, Louise James and Rachna Muddagouni of VLA attended the Criminal Law Section General Committee meeting on 2 June 2011 to answer members' questions and take feedback on ATLAS+ issues.

We have been advised that all suggestions and feedback made by our members have been taken into account and most system improvements would be implemented in the new release due in July 2011.

VLA employed additional staff to deal with backlogs, which we have been advised have now been cleared. They have also allocated extra staff to answer telephone calls. VLA has undertaken to provide us with frequent updates informing members of how the issues are working out and what they are doing to improve the system.

Further updates will come via this eNewsletter.

Members are encouraged to continue emailing the Criminal Law Section on ghazmi@liv.asn.au with any issues as we are feeding these directly to VLA.

NEW FEES CLARIFIED

Tim Gattuso, co-chair of CLS, has recently spoken with VLA's Compliance Unit and clarified the following fees.

Defence Responses/Directions Hearings
VLA pays these responses and hearings as follows:

  • Preparation of Defence response for Initial Directions Hearing - $334.00
  • Appearance at Initial Directions Hearing - $334.00 (in addition to fee for preparing the Response)
  • Appearance at any subsequent Directions Hearing (up to nine in total) - $208.75 *Please note this includes the final Directions Hearing which can only be billed at $208.75
  • Preparation of Defence Response for Final Directions Hearing - $334.00
Therefore VLA will pay $334.00 for attendance at the first Directions Hearing and for preparation of each of the two Defence Responses and $208.75 for attendance at the Final Directions Hearing. This is a total of $1,210.75 that will be payable in relation to every trial plus a further $208.75 for any additional Directions Hearing/Mention beyond the initial and the final ones.

Preparation for County Court Pleas and Trials
Under the old system, solicitors were paid $512.00 for Committal Mention preparation with $444.00 for preparation of Form 32 and substantial negotiations or preparation of a contested committal. Once the matter proceeded to the County Court, solicitors would then receive either $579.99 (where the Committal had been aided as above) or $1,068.00 (where the Committal had not been aided at committal stage and none of the above fees had been paid). A separate preparation fee of $296.00 for preparation of a County Court plea or $1,311.00 for preparation of a County Court trial was then obtainable.

In addition to these amounts conference fees were also payable (up to three hours to a total of $432.00 for County Court pleas or up to five hours to a maximum of $720.00 for County Court trials). Generally the conferences would always be claimed by counsel at trial or the solicitor advocate/counsel who appeared at the plea.

Under the new system for every committal stream matter, solicitors now get $1,000.00 (instead of the old $512.00 fee). That is a base grant for all committal stream matters.

Where the matter involves substantial negotiations resulting in resolution or preparation of a Contested Committal hearing (eg. memorandum to counsel) an additional $625.00 is now payable (this replaces the old $444.00).

When the matter now proceeds to the County Court for a plea, solicitors now receive the additional preparation fee of $393.00 (replacing the old $296.00).

Where the matter proceeds to the County Court for a trial, solicitors receive the additional preparation fee of $1,310.00 (replacing the old $1,311.00).

Matters in transition
Where a matter was subject to an old grant for the preliminary stages and has now progressed to the County Court under the new system, solicitors should submit bills at the new rates, subtracting the old figures already claimed so that you are not worse off.

For example, where solicitors had already submitted a bill for committal stream preparation claiming $512.00 and $444.00, they should now submit a new claim for:

$1,000.00 - $512.00 = $488.00
$625.00 - $444.00 = $181.00
($488.00 + $181.00) = $669.00

Solicitors then claim the $393.00 preparation for County Court plea or $1,310.00 for preparation for trial.

FEEDBACK

Send us your feedback to ghazmi@liv.asn.au.

If you do not wish to receive further Legal Aid Taskforce eNewsletters on the latest updates by the Taskforce, please use the unsubscribe link below. Simply uncheck the box within the Subscription tab within your My LIV profile.


CONOR O'BRIEN | CHAIR LEGAL AID TASKFORCE

  
 
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